1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a display device whose display can be observed from opposite sides of the device.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, as electronic apparatuses such as a cellular phone and portable terminal unit including a lid openable/closable with respect to a device main body, a device has been proposed including display portions disposed on an inner side (surface disposed opposite to the device main body, when a lid is closed) and an outer side of the lid so that information can be displayed in both open and closed states of the lid.
In this type of electronic apparatus, as disclosed in Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication Nos. 10-90678, 2001-290445, a display device of an opposite-side display type is used. In the device, first and second display units for controlling transmission/interception of light are disposed so that rear surfaces on sides opposite to front surfaces on observation sides are disposed opposite to each other in reverse directions, and a plane light source called a backlight is disposed between the rear surfaces of the display units. For this opposite-sides display type display device, the displays of the opposite surfaces are transmission displays in which light from the plane light source is used.
To perform reflection display, a reflective plate is disposed between the two display units, and an outside light which is the light of an outside environment is used in the displays of the opposite sides. For a liquid crystal display unit which performs this known reflection display, as described in Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2000-75284, there has been proposed a unit using a scattering/polarizing plate which transmits one of two polarized-light components crossing at right angles to each other and which scatters and reflects the other polarized-light component.
However, for the display device constituted to perform the reflection display using the above-described reflective plate and scattering/polarizing plate, the display is dark. Also when the opposite-sides display is performed, there is a problem that the displays of the opposite sides are dark.